I'm somewhat in the same boat as you. My son competed in the Freeride series the past 3 years or so (not this year) - acutally placing pretty well in one single event and the series for that year. (He's in Taos this weekend for the comp there).

The only difference is that I didn't spend much money on developing his turns (the writing on the wall became evident relatively early on) .

I expect your sons, like mine, have little trouble carving the steep hardpack as well using the same tecnique from the comps - a couple of turns per hundreds of feet of vertical.

Hey, Weems, wouldn't it have been cheaper to just stuff them in a potatoe sack and toss em off a bridge? And I bet they would have had just as much fun!

Actually, I've done pretty nearly that. We all jumped off the Nevis bungie in New Zealand: 134 meters.

Dumb kids. Where do they get that stuff.

Actually, I'm pretty pleased because they're just brutally critical of the guys who go too big for their own safety. (music to my ears). On the other hand, yes, we've spent quite a bit of time in the ER.

And Tog, the flying squirrels are just amazing. I saw that earlier. I'm avoiding sending it to my kids.

As far as the skiing level is concerned I think Kiffor Berg, Aaron Estrada, and Johnny Mika are just astonishing skiers, and they tend to be able to do this stuff, land it and ski off. Patrick is an amazing skier, and Wallace is a magic rider. Patrick made some huge mistakes in his line and landings. Wallace got third--I think because he is fluid and connected the cliffs in balance. The guy who won the snowboard version (Dave Watson) is clearly insane and an amazing rider. He's also 39 years old.

It's interesting to watch that stuff, because it shows such a gap between the techniques we watch in rec and race skiing, and what is happening out in that freeride world. I think, when you watch Jeremy Nobis, the gap narrows.

The top guys in this sport not only have that rare mix of balls combined with great technique, but also a unique vision of what is potentiall "skiable" and what is not. It takes a lot of experience and vision to be able to look at a steep, rocky cliffed-out and exposed face and say to yourself , "Yeah, that definitely goes" when most people wouldn't even consider what they're looking at as a skiable line.

Skiing with guys of that level and just watching how they interpret the mountain is a valuable learning tool.

Check out this video of a recent Freeride World Tour Qualifier event in Montafon. These guys do not even get the chance to get on the course and inspect their lines before hand. They just have to scope from the bottom with bincoluars and on the hike up, figure from the bottom what "goes" and "doesnt go", pick a line that is exciting and they know they can rip, and then memorize every terrain feature, take off, and landing on a very complex face to that they can ski it as fluidly as possible. It's that kind of vision that I strive for in my personal skiing (have a loooong way to go though )